Ink in the Deep
by Madam'zelleGiry
Summary: Spoilers for 3X04 "The moment the hands leave his, he knows that he's been had. The moment he sees the intricately-colored leaf stuck to his palm, all he can do is stare." Rumple experiences what horror Neverland can deliver firsthand.


**Just something I wrote while watching **_**Nasty Habits**_**. Spoilers, naturally.**

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The moment his son's hands leave his, he knows that he's been had. The moment he sees the intricately-colored leaf stuck to his palm, all he can do is stare.

As his son gently picks his grandson off the forest floor and disappears into the darkness of the trees, he still cannot bring himself to say anything. He wants to call out to his son, but it's too late; he can already feel the magic of the squid ink coming over him, immobilizing him, choking the tears in his throat. Any words that could possibly make it past his teeth would be for naught, for he knows that Baelfire has closed his ears to him.

Neverland has a way of messing with your mind. It creeps into the edges of your consciousness, teasing and taunting, waiting patiently for you to feel. It takes your memories and twists them around and around, forcing you to relive your darkest moments once more. It delights in your pain, and cares naught for the suffering of its victims until they are on their knees in utter madness. And that's when it takes your mind in both hands and crushes it as though it is nothing more than a handful of dead leaves. Hallucinations will come and go, so real that you don't know that you're losing your mind.

And even when the hallucinations are real, the nightmares have only just begun.

In all the days that he had spent here, never had the darkness of Neverland felt quite so ensnaring. The tears that were in his throat are now streaming down his cheeks, and he bows his head, taking short, gasping breaths. It is all too much for him to take in.

He had allowed himself to believe that they'd won.

They had rescued Henry from Pan's clutches, his son's incredible brain providing exactly the strategy they had needed.

They'd taken the boy and they might have still escaped, if Pan had not still had the power of speech.

The way that the wicked man had managed to twist his son's mind…

A simple mention of the prophecy had been enough to plant the seed of doubt in Baelfire's mind, as Pan had surely known it would. _After all this time, my son is still willing to believe that I would try to kill my own grandson._ He doesn't know what to think, when such thoughts worm their way into his mind. He is trapped inside of his own intellect, forced to relive over and over again… he knows the tricks of Neverland, he knows that this is only to be expected… so why can't he break out of the endless suction of his own thoughts?

As his mind delights in its cruel form of torture, he becomes acutely aware of an intense pain in the lower half of his body. A mental shift reveals that his lame leg is crying out in agony, more painful than he ever could have imagined. The pain had gone since he'd been in this accursed place, to the extent of the abandonment of his wretched cane aboard the captain's ship. He knows that the pain is such that he should be collapsed in a heap on the ground, but the spell that keeps him fixed in place forces him to simply feel the pain…

Physical and mental pain together in a place like this is surely a recipe for your end. When you have nothing left, the island has its way with you. When you are defenseless, you are most vulnerable.

He gasps for breath once more, trying to shift his weight to relieve the pain, but is met with intense frustration as the spell refuses to let its grip slacken. He's growling and gasping and trying to suck in air around him as he feels himself start to panic.

No, he must bring himself back under control. He is the Dark One, not just any fool that the forest of Neverland had managed to capture. He was better than this. He bows his head once more, unaware that he had lifted it in the first place, and his eyes screw shut… he forces the thoughts out of his head, the thoughts that tell him how much of a fool he really is, and how he will never be able to get his son back now.

And all at once, the spell lets go. His vision is blurred and the intense pain in his mind goes from agonizing to utterly numb in seconds; he realized that he is shaking, but only because he actually looks at his hands. The light around him fades to black, and he takes a deep breath, realizing that the pain in his leg was a mere phantom.

And he feels her before he sees her. Belle.

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**For my non-fandomers, I did leave it here because that's where the episode picks up, not to leave you in suspense. ;)**


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